THREE IS MAGIC NUMBER TO MAKE CHERRIES SAFE
ALEX CROOK
GARY O’NEIL has told his Bournemouth players they still need THREE more wins to guarantee Premier League safety. The Cherries have climbed away from the bottom three after an impressive run of five wins from their past nine games, including last Saturday’s dramatic last-gasp 3-2 victory at Tottenham. But O’neil is refusing to allow complacency to creep in ahead of the visit by relegation rivals West Ham.
O’neil (below), whose side also face Southampton and Leeds between now and next weekend, said: “I have always had big confidence and big faith in the players.
“Staying up still won’t be easy, there is still a lot of work to do, and we have a big week with games against three of the teams around us.
“We will target at least three more wins to make 100 percent sure. We can still go down from where we are, and I am sure teams have in the past, so my focus will be purely on guarding against that and guarding against complacency. We haven’t achieved anything yet. “Performances since we managed to strengthen the squad in January and get players back from injury have been really good. “If you keep plugging away and keep doing what you believe in, we have a chance to win enough games to achieve what we set out to do in August.” O’neil has paid tribute to January signing Dango Ouattara, who scored his first Premier League goal to clinch the win at Spurs.
O’neil said: “I am delighted for Dango. I have spoken to him about the impact he has had since he arrived in January.
“He was only 20 when we signed him and is 21 now, had not played a lot of first-team football even in France.
“To have the impact he has and to help our points tally from when he arrived to now is huge.
“He is a great kid and has already had lots of good moments for us.”